Continuous present is all we have, and stream of consciousness - which in a novel is arguably just as artificial as the stilted dialogue that you get in most conventional novels. They're all stratagems to try to get closer to the texture of lived life.
If you would have told me when I was 24 years old, right before I went with Coach Carroll to USC, you're going to get to be the offensive coordinator for Pete Carroll and then offensive coordinator for Nick Saban, arguably maybe the two best coaches in all of football by the time you're 40 years old, I would have said, 'Where do I sign up?'
Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who'll argue with you.
When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.
Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you.
First of all, Vince McMahon doesn't argue - he tells you!
If you don't like what someone has to say, argue with them.
You should see what our Founding Fathers used to say to each other and in the early part of our nation. But what they were able to do, especially in Philadelphia in 1787, four months, they argued about what a House should be, what a Senate should be, the power of the president, the Congress, the Supreme Court. And they had to deal with slavery.
God gave you a brain. Do the best you can with it. And you don't have to be Einstein, but Einstein was mentally tough. He believed what he believed. And he worked out things. And he argued with people who disagreed with him. But I'm sure he didn't call everybody jerks.
If I just want to 'start a conversation,' I don't need to run for office. As a matter of fact, it could be argued that many people are more open to hearing you if you're not running for office.
You never argued with my mother. You couldn't win.
I've never argued that humans are massively hot-wired. What I was trying to point out was that you can't understand how we learn unless you identify the learning mechanisms. And these have some genetic basis.
You sit up there, and you see the whole gamut of human nature. Even if the case being argued involves only a little fellow and $50, it involves justice. That's what is important.
The conservative idea is not that government has no role. You might have argued that in the thirties when conservatives opposed the New Deal.
I mean, there's no arguing. There is no anything. There is no beating around the bush. 'You're fired' is a very strong term.
I think if you make a good movie, people walk away arguing.
For heaven's sake, when you see the enemy attacking, you pick up the pitchfork, and you enlist everybody you see. You don't stand around arguing about who's responsible, or who's going to pay.
I never breathe through the nose, not when I'm singing. In the opera, you don't have so much time. That's fine at the beginning of an opera or after somebody else has been doing an aria, and you want to get a good fresh start.
I'm abrasive. I am so sure that I'm right about virtually everything. I can sing you an aria of reasons to not like me.
I got last-minute rush seats to Baz Luhrmann's 'Boheme,' and my favorite singer, Ekaterina Solovyeva, was playing Mimi that day. My face got burned off when she sang the aria 'Donde Lieta Usci.' The woman was technically sobbing and singing opera at the same time. I don't know how you do that.
